If you were hoping to lease a plot in any of the Westside's community gardens, your only option now is to sign up for a waiting list.
The last of the 74 spaces at the new, raised-bed Westside Community Center garden was just assigned, according to Larry Stebbins, whose Pikes Peak Urban
Gardens (PPUG) manages the site through an agreement with the city.
Also full for the coming season, he said, are other Westside community gardens that PPUG initiated over the past two years. These are the 18-plot site in the 2800
block of Pikes Peak Avenue and the one at Vermijo Park, which has 17 plots.
Stebbins expressed surprise at the amount of gardening interest, calling it “crazy good.” Laughing, he said, “We can't build these fast enough.”
A month ago, the Westside Pioneer reported 40 spaces (including 10 wheelchair-accessible) still available in Westside's raised beds, But as of March 2, all those
plots were taken and there are nine people already on a waiting list, said Janice Rosebush, Westside Community Center receptionist.
People wanting to get on the waiting list can do so by calling the center at 385-7920.
The raised beds were built and placed by volunteers last fall in the former playground of what used to be Buena Vista school.
Stebbins will hold a free gardening workshop at the center Saturday, March 19 from 9 to 10:30 a.m. The event is geared specifically for the Community Center
gardeners, explaining the best ways to use their 4-by-8-foot spaces, but interested members of the public can also attend, he said.